Disguised fields of fire are necessary to give you a tactical advantage when your home is entered by uninvited individuals.
These markers, however, aren’t of much use if the intruder moves too quickly through your home, or to locations that put you at a disadvantage. Designing markers that also deter, slow down, direct, and unbalance an intruder while giving you vital information is a useful skill to have.
Mapping and Strategy
Before installing various devices and markers, it is essential to know the weaknesses and strengths of each room that an intruder may enter your home from. Begin with a survey of the outside of your home. Take note of and map:
- Doors
- First-floor windows
- Any upper-level window that can be reached from a tree, adjacent roof, or with a ladder.
- Attic
- Basement
- Any external stairs, fire escapes, or other means used to get to upper-level windows or doors.
Next, consider the access points within each room, and from room to room. This includes staircases as well as doors, hatches, and hallways. For each access point, mark on your map if the entry point has a lock and alarm. If not, this is a good time to install these devices.
Objectives Each Marker Should Meet:
- Slow intruders down and make them feel confused
It is essential to keep an intruder’s advance through your home at a crawl. Since the odds are they don’t know the layout of your home, you can make it very hard and costly for them to advance. - Make them startle
The best way to make a person or a group startle or hesitate is to give them something they were not expecting. It could be a bright light suddenly turned on them, the sounds of a mean dog barking, or an ear-breaking boom in close quarters. This alone could be enough to scare the intruders out of your home. - Reveal where they are and where they are going
Some invaders may freeze when startled. Others may jump, lurch, or run. In the latter case, you may need to rely on other markers to direct them where you want them to go, or reveal where they have moved. - Prevent them from knowing where you are
This makes it easier to escape if necessary and ensures you have the element of surprise if you decide to attack. - Shepherding them to where you want them
There are three possible places where you might want to direct an intruder.
- Encourage them to leave and forget all about disturbing you with their criminal plans.
- In the event the intruder(s) aren’t deterred, your next best option is to direct them to a room with only one exit that you can close and lock after they enter. Ideally, the door should require a key to get out, or use a lock set that requires a key on both sides.
- If the intruder persists, then direct them to a place where you can attack directly using a baseball bat, gun, or some other weapon. This area should have no cover for them, and also have markers that make it very easy to aim your weapon with precision.
Strategy Considerations
It’s one thing to set up a tripwire system, and quite another to live a normal life with such arrangements in high-traffic areas. One solution is to avoid putting trip wires in routine traffic areas. Instead, block these off completely when you aren’t using the room. If an intruder comes in, they will be forced to use any available path, which will have tripwires.
This is especially important if someone cases your home before invading and thinks they can use main traffic areas that won’t be available at the projected time of entry. Remember, today aerial trespass with drones is extremely easy. If you think nosy neighbors looking in your windows are bad, drones are even worse!
It is also a smart home defender who sets up known distances to be used as reference points for aiming a weapon. No matter whether you are using a gun, bow/arrow, or throwing a sharp object, these points will need to be accurate, readable under stressful conditions, and easy to understand.
Intruders that are armed with a gun may start shooting if they become panicked, they were intending to use the weapon as a means of intimidation, as a means of signaling others waiting to take action, or for some other reason.
Regardless of why they are shooting, or the intent, they have upped the threat level to lethal. If you live in a country where gun ownership is permitted, and you have completed all legal requirements, you may be legally permitted to return fire to stop the threat to your life.
Finally, the system should be easy to use and practice with. You should routinely go over your list of signals as well as practice with them so you know what to do in a situation.
4 Items to Use for Deterrents and Fields of Fire
Sound Based Alerts
Bells on doors is a very old alarm system. A small cowbell can be mounted at the top of the door. You can also use things that make different noises as you walk over them. For example, a pet’s squeak toy may be used in one area, and something that makes a crackling sound in another area.
If the person continues to move further into the room or enters a different room, then you might want to use more threatening sounds. These include:
- the sound of a door slamming “somewhere else” in the house. Use constructively placed speakers to throw off the intruder’s sense of where you are or what you might be doing.
- The sound of footsteps (either upstairs, downstairs, or elsewhere in the building).
- The sound of running water, a toilet flushing, etc. There are all kinds of sounds and directions they can come from to disorient the intruder.
- the recorded sound of an enraged dog growling
- loud sirens
- sounds or music that tend to disorient or evoke dread
Gunshots may or may not be a good idea. If the invader is armed and believes they are being shot at, they may decide to return fire. Depending on the laws in your area, this could make it harder to prove you were shooting in self-defense and didn’t “provoke” the intruder to escalate.
Visual Alerts
Lighting changes, like a painting or photo on the wall being illuminated, can reveal exactly where the intruder is. Optical sensors used to trigger the light switch may or may not work under certain situations. Use a backup manual tripwire in case the intruder has equipment that reveals the location of laser beams or other electronic alarm system triggers.
As with sound-based signals, you can also use various escalation light signals to deter, intimidate, and slow down the intruder. Some examples:
- different colored or high-intensity strobes with disorienting patterns to match siren sounds
- a flashlight “outside”
- lights going on and off in another room with a closed door.
As with gunshots, a laser pointer associated with a gun may also “provoke” an intruder to think they will soon be shot at. While some may run off, others may decide to try and shoot you first. Unfortunately, if you live in an area where laws favor intruders over taxpayers trying to live peacefully in their own homes, it could cause legal problems if you wind up shooting in self-defense.
Mazes
The pathway through the room should prevent intruders from walking in a straight line to the other side of the room and exit. There must be a narrow, weaving pathway that directs them into an area that does not have good cover or other means of protection.
Once the invader enters your home, they should be forced to use the maze. You can use anything from lightweight from laundry racks to rolling carts (with locking wheels) to block off the main pathways you use as a matter of routine. Just remember to put the blocks up when you aren’t using the room.
If an intruder insists on continuing further into your home, and unblocks the main pathway, use escalated visual, auditory or physical signals to send them to an enclosed small area with only one entrance. The door should have a remote-controlled mechanism you can use to shut and lock the door behind them. Once in that room, they won’t be able to get out until either you or the police let them out.
Non-Lethal Physical Deterrents
You can also try other physical, but non-lethal deterrents. This may include a shower of confetti, balloons, or water bursts. Try to reserve these for locations closer to where you are, or other areas that are sensitive. Once these systems are triggered, you should have already called the police, and either escaped or be prepared for a fight if escape is not possible.
Today, with high crime rates, and laws that favor home invasions, people must make plans that enable them to stay safe in their own homes. Once intruders break in, you can use a series of signals and deterrents to buy time to escape or mount your defense if the intruder isn’t sufficiently encouraged to leave without further imposition.
